


1 PM

by caveyoja



Series: The Family You Choose [5]
Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2018-06-16
Packaged: 2019-05-24 03:17:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14946581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caveyoja/pseuds/caveyoja
Summary: Confrontations, apologies, and confessions  - the aftermath of the mission to get Gert's meds, with discussions of why Gert was sidelined, why Alex and Nico didn't tell them Amy was murdered, and the identity of Alex's secret contact.





	1 PM

Alex cleared his throat and massaged the back of his neck. Fuck, he was tired. But – if they didn’t do this now, he knew they never would. Molly and Chase had told him what the Yorkes’ had said on the way up, and now that they knew that Amy had been murdered – and they finally knew who was responsible – it’d be best to get that out now. He’d learned his lesson about hiding secrets like that. He leaned wearily against the motel front desk, facing the others, and started, “OK – let’s get this over with. Molly – what happened with Mr. and Mrs. Yorkes?”

They all turned toward Molly who was curled up against Lace by the fire. “Let her sleep, ok?” Chase intervened, “She did lift the van for us when we changed the tire.” 

“Fine,” Alex agreed, “You’re up then, Chase.”

“Um..ok,” Chase said, standing up and leaning against the other side of the desk. “When we got to Gert’s room, there weren’t any meds where Molly thought they would be.”

“Which I could have told you if you’d bothered to ask before you left,” Gert sniped.

“This is true,” Chase conceded. “We were talking about where to look next when Stacey showed up with a baseball bat – said she thought we might be Jonah breaking in.”

Karo raised a hand, “Why would Jonah break in? They’re working together.”

Chase half shrugged, “Sort of not? They said Jonah had been threatening all of us to keep our parents in line – they said they wanted out - all of our parents did - but couldn’t because of what he’d do to us.”

Gert shook her head skeptically, “I don’t know – did they have anything to back up their story?”

Chase nodded, and looked over to Nico apologetically, “They said that Amy didn’t commit suicide – that Jonah killed her.”

Alex grimaced and watched as Nico straightened up, her eyes widening slightly as she stared ahead, and muttered, “Oh.” He wished he could have given her a heads up, but she’d brushed him off when he tried. He watched gratefully as Karo edged closer to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, and taking one of her hands.

Gert looked at Nico, and then the others in the room. Chase and Alex had time to process the news on the drive up, and Karo looked as surprised as she felt. But Nico? “You knew?” Gert asked.

Nico frowned, not meeting anyone’s eyes, “I knew it wasn’t suicide. Alex and I found her phone, and it was pretty easy to figure out. I didn’t know who killed her though.”

“Why did he kill her?” Gert pressed.

Alex jumped in, hoping to direct the attention away from Nico, “She broke into the server, just like we did.”

Gert looked at Alex, who didn’t meet her eyes. So, Alex and Nico had both known she was murdered, and hadn’t filled in the rest of them. Great. Chase and Molly were both too wiped out to have noticed, and Karo was too focused on Nico, and would forgive her anything anyway. Which left her as the only one wondering just how much else Alex and Nico were hiding. 

She saw Chase straighten up and look at her, wondering what she was thinking about, and she shook her head, signaling to him that she didn’t want to get into it just now. Later though? Those two had some questions to answer. She straightened up on the sofa and redirected the conversation, “So – did they want us to come back so they can protect us?”

“Nope,” Chase shook his head, crossing his arms, “They said if Nico’s Mom couldn’t protect Amy, they wouldn’t be able to protect us. Said they were fighting against Jonah, and we should stay hidden.”

Gert huffed out a laugh, slouching back into the sofa, “Not too many other options right now. Anything else?”

Chase nodded, running a hand though his hair nervously. “Yeah – two other things. Jonah also ordered Molly’s parents’ murder – and Mrs. Dean was the one who killed them.” He turned to Karo sympathetically, “I’m sorry, Karo.” 

Karo’s mouth fell open as she looked at the others in the room. Nico pulled her closer, and whispered to her, “Hey – we knew what they were all doing – this isn’t anything new, ok?” Karo furrowed her brow and nodded slowly, gripping Nico’s hand.

Gert closed her eyes and let out a breath. Their parents still weren’t done fucking them over. She sighed, “And the last thing?”

“I left my burner phone with Dale and Stacey,” Chase answered.

“It was a good idea,” Alex defended when he saw Gert about to protest. “If they are working against Jonah, having a line of communication could be useful.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Nico said irritably, running a hand over Karo’s hair to smooth it back. Her girlfriend had been through more than enough tonight, and she needed to get her away from this for a while. “That’s it then?”

Alex smirked, “Well – Molly did rat out Chase and Gert to her parents.” Chase leaned his head back and grimaced, and Gert pulled a pillow over her face. 

Nico saw Karo crack a smile and shake her head, and then Nico barked out a laugh, “And, thank you for that one bright spot. Can we go to sleep now?”

Gert pulled the pillow from her face and raised her hand, “We need a meeting – tomorrow, when everyone is awake.”

Alex nodded and pulled out his phone to check the time, “OK – 1 o’clock?” The others all muttered in agreement and started back to their rooms.

Gert motioned toward a still sleeping Molly, and Chase nodded, picking her up. They headed towards Molly’s room, with Lace tiredly following them. “So, how mad?” Chase asked.

Gert shook her head, “Too tired to be mad, and too glad you two are safe. I’ll be mad tomorrow.” She opened the door to Molly’s room and pulled the covers back from the bed. Chase put Molly down, and Gert pulled the covers up over her, kissing her on the forehead. As they left the room, Chase pulled her into a hug, kissed her on the top of the head, and turned back to his room. Gert grabbed his arm, “Where are you going?”

Chase raised an eyebrow, and guessed, “Not back to my room because you kicked me out of bed?”

“Not tonight, at least. I freaked out when I woke up and couldn’t find you, and I’m not quite ready to let you out of my sight. Not until the meds kick in, at least.”

Chase smiled and took her hand, “I’ll take whatever I can get.”

 

Karo sat cross-legged on the roof watching the sunrise. She knew Nico would have wanted to be here for her, but Nico was exhausted and right now she kind of needed to be alone to think things through. They already knew all their parents were murderers, but this was different. As far as evil parents went, she’d won the jackpot. The Dad who raised her sold them out to her biological father. Her Mother had killed Molly’s parents and came pretty fucking close to killing Molly. And her biological father was the big-bad behind all of it.

He had killed her girlfriend’s sister. He threatened to kill all of them. He was behind whatever plan the other parents had been blackmailed into that was supposed to destroy the city. 

And he could do the same thing she could with light. She raised a hand and concentrated, pulling together a small ball of light, and watched it in fascination. At first she’d thought this was a miracle – the ultimate expression of her grandfather’s teachings. She had thought of all the good she could do. 

But then Jonah had shown up. He’d creeped her out long before she knew he was her father and long before she knew he was behind everything. And him being able to do this? She closed her fist around the ball of light. If he could do this, how could it be anything good?

The first rays of the sun hit her and she closed her eyes, spreading out her arms to soak it in. She had talked to Nico about this before - God – what would she do without Nico? Nico said it didn’t matter that she had the same abilities as Jonah. It mattered that she used them to fight Jonah. But she’d tried to fight him – had tried so hard – and had lost. 

She’d been safe because she was his daughter, and he wouldn’t kill her – but her friends? They’d rescued her. They knew what he was, and what she was, and they still accepted her and risked their lives to get her back. Because she was one of them.

All her life she’d been the perfect daughter. She did everything she was asked to do with a smile. That was her role, and she played it perfectly. But her family? They’d lied. They’d built their church on the bodies of kids who had come to them for help. How far back did it go? Was her grandfather in on it? Were any of his writings real, or were they all a cover to lure in sacrifices?

She opened her eyes. The light refracted around her into rainbows, and she was floating a few feet over the roof. She inhaled, pulling the light back into herself and slowly drifted back down. 

Nico had said they were all kind of broken. That her kind of broken was not accepting herself. That wasn’t entirely true. The problem was that she didn’t really know who she was. But she did know that she wasn’t Frank or Leslie or Jonah’s daughter any more. They’d lied to her for her entire life and she couldn’t be part of it any longer.

But it was going to be ok. Because she had a family – not the one she’d been born into, but a family she had chosen. A family with a girlfriend and two sisters and two dorky brothers and a guard dinosaur with six-inch fangs. And she would do anything to keep them safe.

 

Alex’s hair was still wet from the shower as he jogged into the room, muttering an apology for being late. They’d moved the chairs in the dining room into a circle, and he went to an empty one between Karo and Molly, still working on tying his shoe.

“Oversleep?” Molly asked with a smirk.

Alex rolled his eyes, “Says the girl who slept through the drive up here.”

Molly shrugged, “I did offer to drive.”

Chase smiled, “And we did want to get up here in one piece, so we said no.”

“You guys are going to have to teach me sooner or later, you know?”

“Much later,” Gert broke in. Alex finished tying his shoe and Gert raised an eyebrow, “You ready?”

“Yeah – sorry.”

Gert stood in front of them, her hands clasped together tightly to try to keep herself patient. There was so much they needed to go over – not even counting Nico and Alex keeping secrets from them. She guessed that had some reason for that, and she’d get that from them eventually. The more immediate concern was how they’d sidelined her on the mission to get her meds. She knew the reason her sister and her boyfriend and her childhood friend had idiotically risked their lives was because they cared about her, but they still had no right to do it without telling her. She really wished she could wait for her meds to kick in completely, but this issue at least needed to be confronted while it was still fresh, so she’d just have to keep herself steady while she did it. She stared at the three of them, and kept her voice calm as she demanded, “I would like to know what the hell you were all thinking? What gave you the right to sneak off to get my meds and not tell me?”

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence, broken when Chase leaned forward and answered, “You needed them.”

Gert raised an eyebrow and spread out her hands, “That’s it?”

Chase closed his eyes, and swallowed, hoping he wasn’t throwing away all the progress they’d made. “Gert, you couldn’t sleep without getting nightmares. You barely ever left your room. You were in pain, and it scared the hell out of me. This was the only way we knew how to help you.”

“Without telling me?” Gert’s face was impassive. She could see how scared Chase was, and she wanted so much to tell him it would be ok, but he had to know something like this couldn’t happen again, however justified he thought it was.

Chase made eye contact with her, “Without telling you. Because you would have told us not to, and that would have been the wrong decision.”

Gert straightened her posture and crossed her arms, because that was the crux of the problem, wasn’t it? “So, you just took the decision away from me?”

Chase’s heart rate sped up, because damn if this didn’t feel like the calm before the storm whenever his Dad was about to go off. But, he knew losing Gert was a risk when he agreed to go, and she’d slept better last night than in weeks, so it was worth it. He braced himself for what was coming, and kept eye contact with her, “Yeah. We did. But I’m not sorry, because you needed it.”

“And that’s your decision?” Gert demanded, forcing her voice to stay calm. How could he not see how wrong it was to insist that he knew “what was better” for her? Did he not see where that could lead?

Molly’s chair fell backwards as she jumped up, her hands balled into fists, and stood between them, breaking their eye contact. “No Gert! It was MY fucking decision, ok?” She pointed to the others, “None of them were there last time! None of them saw what this fucking disease did to you! I lost you then, and it scared the hell out of me, and I’m not fucking losing you again.”

Gert took a surprised step back, and stared at Molly. There were tears in the corners of her sister’s eyes – Gert placed her hand on Molly’s face to calm her, and Molly closed her eyes and started crying. Gert wrapped her arms around Molly, her voice more gentle as she told her, “I still get to make decisions about my life – even if I’m sick.”

“Being off your meds wasn’t a decision,” Alex broke in, “It was an accident. If you had a choice? You would have still been taking them. We gave you that choice back.”

Gert closed her eyes briefly, and then looked back at Chase, “This is about more than just getting me my meds. This is about letting me decide about my life.”

Chase stood up behind Molly, “I don’t think any of us can really do that any more – at least not without thinking about the rest of us. When Darius kidnapped Alex? We got him back. When Karo was captured? We rescued her. When you got sick – we got you medicine. We’re family, and we take care of each other.”

Nico got up and stood on the other side of Molly, “I can’t believe I’m saying this – but Chase is right. You needed the meds, they got them.” She shrugged, “Family can be a bitch to deal with sometimes, you know?”

Molly had stopped crying, and Gert pulled away from her. She did get it – she knew how badly her anxiety attacks had scared all of them – and she would’ve probably done the same thing for any of the others. She saw them all looking at her expectantly, and sighed, conceding, “All right – granted – getting my meds was a good thing. But leaving me out of the loop was wrong.”

Chase agreed, “Yeah. It was wrong, and I am sorry for that. I didn’t want to tell you and give you more to worry about.”

She crossed her arms and looked at him over the top of her glasses, “And me waking up with all of you gone wasn’t going to make me worry?”

“Kind of hoped we’d be back before you woke up,” Alex muttered, looking down at the ground.

Karo had watched without interrupting, hoping they’d work everything out without too much bloodshed, but knew that for every complaint Gert had, the three idiot amigos would have an excuse. If this ran a couple of more rounds then they were going to run the risk of Chase saying something that set Gert off, which would lead to Gert and Chase breaking up. That would mean more months of the two of them alternately sniping at each other and watching each other with sappy puppy dog eyes while the other wasn’t looking before they inevitably got back together again. And, no. No one wanted that. 

Karo grimaced, stood up and cleared her throat, facing Molly, Chase and Alex, “For fuck’s sake, the next time you’re going to do something stupid, tell the person that you’re going to do it for about it first. Right?” They looked at her in surprise, and then turned to each other and nodded. 

She spun around and faced Gert, “They screwed up, but they did it because they love you. They didn’t want to tell you because you were in a bad way, plus, sometimes you can be kind of scary – but, you know, a kind of good, powerful feminist scary?” Gert raised an eyebrow, the corner of her mouth turning up in a surprised smile and then nodded. “So – can you forgive them? They won’t fuck up like this again.”

Gert smirked, “Never let it be said that I stood in the way of freeing them up to find new and more impressive ways to fuck up.”

Karo smiled brightly, “Ok, then. We’re good, right?”

They all nodded, and Gert agreed, “Yeah, we’re good.”

Nico put her hand on Karo’s arm to get her attention, and Karo turned to see Nico looking at her proudly. Nico stretched up on her toes, kissed Karo on the cheek, and hugged her, whispering in her ear, “That was beautiful.”

Molly held out her arms to Gert, who smiled, stepping forward to hug her sister. Looking over Molly’s shoulder she motioned for first Chase and then Alex to join them. 

After they stepped away from the hug, they all sat down, and Gert cleared her throat. She wasn’t ready to confront Nico or Alex about their secrets yet, but she did need to let them know what she an Nico and Karo were planning when this was over. “OK – that was issue one – but there was something else. Something came up last night while you three were off on your joyride.” She glanced over at Nico and Karo, and after their nod continued, “There are two criminals at school, and when everything with Jonah is over, Karo and Nico and I are going to make sure they are prosecuted.”

Alex raised an eyebrow, “What did they do?”

Gert hesitated, looking at Karo for permission, and continued after receiving a nod of approval, “Attempted rape.”

Chase’s eyes shot over to Karo. She met his glance and nodded, confirming his suspicion. She noticed Alex watching the exchange, and knew he suspected something. He and Molly would end up getting dragged in to this along with the rest of them, and they deserved to know the whole story. She closed her eyes and let out an anxious breath. If you can’t trust your brothers and sisters, who can you trust? She stood up, looking at Molly and Alex, “I was at a party – I passed out – I’m not sure why, because I didn’t drink anything, but it happened. Next thing I know, Chase is waking me up and getting me out of there.” She looked over to Chase and nodded.

He cleared his throat, “I saw two guys from the Lacrosse team – Brandon and Lucas – they were carrying Karo upstairs to one of the bedrooms. I followed them, and when I got there, they - “ he looked back at Karo, and she nodded for him to continue, “They were going to rape her. Bastards even asked me if I wanted in. So, I kicked the crap out of them, and got Karo out of there.”

Alex leaned back in his chair, “Fuck.” He looked at Karo, who was now staring down at the ground, and then at Nico, who gripped her girlfriend’s hand tightly. He recognized the look on Nico’s face as the same one Amy got when she was righteously pissed off at something, and damn but he had to agree with her. Bad enough that those assholes would try something like that at all – but, trying something like that with Karo? Hell, no. Karo was family, and that made this personal. “Yeah. Count me in.”

Molly looked around at the group, trying to gauge their reactions. She didn’t want to believe it, because rapists weren’t supposed to be people you knew. They were supposed to be skeezy strangers you could see from a mile away, right? But it was obvious they all believed it, and she knew Chase wouldn’t lie about what happened. She felt herself growing angry, and the now familiar warmth around her eyes when her powers flared up, “Those assholes! What is wrong with them?”

“A whole lot, actually,” Chase muttered. He balled his hands into fists, remembering the anger he felt when he’d walked in on them, and the anger he’d felt since then knowing that he’d been part of their group and that they’d expected him to help cover things up.

Gert reached over to place a comforting hand on Chase’s shoulder, and she waited until she saw him work through the anger. He reached reached for her hand on his shoulder, brought it to his lips and kissed it, meeting her eyes and nodding to confirm he was ok. She gave him a tight smile and nodded back, then turned to the rest of the group and announced tiredly, “That’s all I’ve got. Anyone else?”

Alex raised a hand and stood up, facing the others. He’d add catching up to the rapists to his list, but they had to deal with Jonah and their parents before they could get to that, so he needed to focus on the next steps that they could take. He gestured over to Gert, “Chase said you had a dream where Chase’s dad put a tracking device on him?”

Gert closed her eyes and shook her head, starting to defend herself, “I was kind of messed up -”

“No – it makes sense!,” Alex interrupted, and explained, “I know we’ve ditched most of what we had with us when we first left, but we really should check to see if there’s some way they can track us. So,” he held out a hand toward Chase, “I propose Chase puts together a scanner to make sure there isn’t anything they can use to find us.”

Chase looked up, startled, then focused on what Alex had said. Alex had mentioned it before, but he’d gotten so wrapped up with what was happening with Gert that he’d kind of forgotten about it. But – hey – homemade geiger counter and RF scanner? They’d done that at the summer science camp his Mom made him go to when he was twelve. “Um, ok, yeah.”

“So – what do you need?” Alex asked.

Chase thought for a few seconds, running through the parts he’d used before, nodded to himself, and mumbled, “I can probably scavenge the electronics from stuff at the flea market – I think I saw a few things there when we went last month.”

Molly jumped from her seat, “I wanna go! I missed it last time!”

Alex shook his head, “You know the amber alert is still out on you.”

“But I can disguise myself!” Molly protested.

Nico stood up and put her hand on Molly’s shoulder, “You know – we braid her hair, I do some makeup for her, and sunglasses? No one would recognize her.”

Alex looked at Molly’s pleading expression and sighed, nodding his agreement. “OK – I guess we shouldn’t have the same faces showing up on a regular basis anyway. “ He nodded over to Chase, “Anything you can do to him to make him less recognizable?”

Nico tilted her head and considered the possibilities for a moment before asking, “How long would it take you to grow a beard?”

Chase shrugged, “I...don’t really know – my Dad had a rule about shaving every day, and it sort of got to be a habit.”

“Well, it’s Tuesday, and the flea market is closed this weekend, so that gives us about a week and a half. Don’t shave, and I’ll see what I can do.”

“Do you want to go this time?” Alex asked Nico, “I mean, you haven’t had a chance yet.”

Nico shook her head, “No, thanks. Me disguising myself means undoing this,” she circled a finger around her face, “and I’m not quite ready for that yet. Someone else can take my spot.”

“Gert?” Alex asked.

Gert thought for a moment, and nodded, “Yeah – ok – but...” she held up a strand of her hair, which now had long dark roots. “I think this needs to get cut. I mean, purple kind of stands out, and purple with dark roots is even worse.”

Chase squeezed her hand, “You sure?”

“Yeah – I mean, it’s temporary, right? It’ll grow back and I can dye it again.” Gert looked over to Nico, “Want to take a shot at hair dressing?”

Nico looked around uncomfortably, “Um...I’ve never cut hair before.”

“I’m sure there are videos for it,” Alex offered.

“Nico – I trust you – just cut out the purple, and we’ll see what we have, ok?” Gert encouraged.

Nico glanced over to Karo, who raised an eyebrow and shrugged. She sighed and nodded, “Um...ok, then.”

Alex leaned back in his chair, “That’s it for me. Anyone else?” Seeing everyone shake their head, he continued, “Cool – I guess we’re good for now. “ He stood up, clapped his hands together, and pointed toward the kitchen, “Right now? I gotta get some coffee.”

Chase groaned, “How can you drink that shit? It’s vile.”

Alex called over his shoulder as he was halfway out the door, “No – the crap Amy used to make was vile. This stuff is two steps above that.”

 

“Karo!” Gert called, stopping Karo and Nico as they were heading back to their room. “Can we talk?” she asked.

Nico and Chase looked at each other, and Nico pointed toward the kitchen. “You know? I think we need coffee, right Chase?” Chase hesitated, not sure what Gert was doing, but after a reassuring smile from Gert he didn’t resist as Nico dragged him away.

“Hey – is everything ok?” Karo asked.

“Yeah – I just...” Gert paused, gathering her courage. “I wanted to thank you for playing peacemaker. It could have turned out a lot worse.”

Karo smiled, “Hey – no problem. Most of the Gibborim teaching turned out to be crap, but at least I got the conflict resolution merit badge, so it wasn’t a total waste, right?”

“I guess not,” Gert said, looking down at the ground. “I...uh...I also wanted to apologize.”

Karo shook her head, “I was out of line last night -”

“No – you weren’t. I was worried about Molly and Chase, and I took it out on you. I’m sorry.”

Karo smiled and hugged her, “I’m just glad we’re all ok now.”

Gert returned the hug, and then took a step back, “I also need to apologize for before. I was a bitch to you because I was jealous about Chase. I know you didn’t ask for him to go after you, and it was my fault for not being honest about how I felt about him.”

Karo took hold of Gert’s upper arms, “It’s like Nico said – we were all pretty stupid back then. But that’s over now – hell, that was over the moment you defended me and called Eiffel a hateful bitch.” She squeezed Gert’s arms, “Seriously. I could have kissed you.”

Gert chuckled, “Sorry – flattered, but tried that and you’re not my type.”

“You’re bi?” Karo asked, surprised.

“No – I mean I experimented, but I’m pretty sure I’m straight - I guess I’ve always been kind of stuck on a cute but oblivious jock of the opposite sex,” Gert said, nodding toward the kitchen.

Karo nodded knowingly, “Sometimes it takes a while to figure out what you want.”

“But we both did it, didn’t we?” Gert said with a smile.

“Yeah, we did - the local girl gang pulled through.” Karo held up her hand, and Gert high-fived her. Karo wrapped her arm around Gert’s shoulders and the two of them headed to the kitchen.

 

Nico poured herself a cup of coffee, spooned a tablespoon of sugar into it, and shrugged. She looked over at Alex, “You were right. Amy’s was worse.”

“I know, right?” Alex said with a smile, not looking up from his computer.

Nico looked out the window to see Chase and Molly playing fetch with Lace, and sat down across from Alex. “So – we need to talk.”

Alex paused, and then nodded, finishing up what he was typing and then closing the laptop. “Yeah, I suppose we do. However much I deserve it, you being permanently pissed off at me is bad for the group.”

Nico nodded, “I’m working on getting over that. So far, I’m still stuck on you seeing me as a copy of my sister.”

Alex’s eyes widened as he realized Nico knew how he felt about her and about Amy, and then sighed, “Yeah. I am sorry about that. You’re right – I look at you and I see her, and you deserve better. For what it’s worth, now that I realize what I was doing, I know that we weren’t ever going to work out, so you don’t need to worry about the whole ex-boyfriend stalker thing.”

“I guess you don’t have to worry about the whole angry ex-girlfriend either. But what I wanted to talk about was another problem. I’m pretty sure Gert is going to call us out on keeping Amy’s murder a secret, and it’d be pretty fucking hypocritical of me to blame her for it.” Alex nodded and frowned. “So – why do we say we kept it from them?”

Alex thought for a moment and shook his head, “I honestly don’t know. I mean, we weren’t exactly sure about what happened for a while, and then everything went so fast that there was never a good time to tell them about her.”

Gert’s voice came from behind him, and Alex flinched as he heard her ask, “So – it was a sin of omission?”

Karo raised an eyebrow, and walked to the other side of the table, sitting next to Nico, “What was?”

Gert sat next to Alex, resting her elbows on the table, “Nico and Alex not telling us that Amy was murdered.”

Karo looked between Alex and Nico and shook her head, “No – you had a good reason, right?”

Nico took Karo’s hand, “I’m sorry, baby. We really didn’t. It’s just, everything happened so fast, we never got to tell the rest of you.”

The outside door opened as Chase and Molly entered. “Never got to tell us what?” Chase asked. Alex sighed, dropping his head to the table. So much for having some time to figure out how to spin this.

“That they knew Amy was murdered before we ran,” Gert answered as Chase sat next to her.

Molly grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and nodded, “Yeah – that is kind of a biggie.”

Alex sat up and saw them all looking at him expectantly. Great. Yet another thing he’d fucked up. He leaned back in his chair, stuffed his hands into his pockets to keep from fidgeting, and cleared his throat. “Look, guys, I’m sorry. It wasn’t a secret I ever intended to keep, and it’s my fault entirely. Nico didn’t know about it until a little while before we left. I get why you’re pissed. I’ve got a bad habit of playing things close to the vest - it’s just I spent so long hiding things from everyone, it’s hard to stop.”

“That why you weren’t at the funeral?” Gert asked.

Alex shrugged, “Part of it.” He sighed, “I guess most of you have figured out by now that I was in love with Amy - “

“You were what?” Chase broke in, surprised.

Gert leaned over, putting a hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear, “I’ll explain later, sweetie.”

Alex grimaced and then leaned forward on the table. “I am really sorry – I will try to be better, but if I do keep anything from you guys again? Please – don’t let it slide.”

Gert, Molly, Nico and Karo all nodded, accepting his apology, but Chase grimaced and shook his head. “So – does that mean we’re all ok not knowing who his mysterious contact is?”

Gert raised an eyebrow, folded her hands on the table and looked at Alex, “And that is a valid point.”

Alex closed his eyes and forced himself to resist the temptation to talk his way out of this. He was pretty sure they would object, but they were objecting now about not knowing, so he didn’t have a choice any more. Plus – he needed to be honest with them. He might have been doomed to fail with Nico, but his lying had sped that along, and he didn’t want the bitterness that Nico felt to spread to the others. He opened his eyes, and looked straight at Gert because she’d been the one to ask, “It’s Darius.”

Nico’s eyes went wide, “The Darius who kidnapped you Darius?”

As Alex nodded in confirmation, Gert raised an eyebrow and wondered, “The enemy of my enemy?”

Alex shrugged, “Well, he isn’t exactly our friend, but he does have an interest in getting at my Dad.”

“Just how much are we into this enemy of our enemy for, exactly?” Chase asked warily.

“About 4 grand.”

Chase groaned, dropping his head to the table and Gert placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. She closed her eyes and asked, “What exactly does he want from us? Because, we’re not going to be able to pay that back any time soon.”

“Nothing - “ Alex started to answer, but was interrupted by a muttered, “For now” from Chase, who hadn’t even bothered to look up. “Look – he hates my Dad even more than I do. He took the fall for something my Dad did – spent years in prison because of it - and my Dad didn’t deliver what he promised for it. And – worse? His cousin Andre was the last sacrifice. He knows we all have trust funds, and I’m pretty sure the courts aren’t going to be able to touch them, so we will be good for the money when this is over. He’s using us, and we’re using him. It’s mutually beneficial.”

Gert was silent for a moment, considering what Alex had said, and then asked, “How much does he know?”

Alex leaned forward over the table, his hands folded in front of him. “He knows our parents killed all those kids. He saw some of what happened at the dig site, so he knows about Molly and Karo and Lace. He knows we didn’t kidnap Molly or kill Destiny.”

Chase sat up and looked at him, “Does he know where we are?”

Alex nodded, “Yeah – he told me about the motel. He used to use it as a safe house when he needed to lie low.”

Chase closed his eyes and muttered, “Shit.” He opened his eyes back up and looked at Alex, “We need to find someplace else -” Alex started to protest, but Chase talked over him, “Maybe not now, but we need a fallback location, and we need to be able to get the fuck out of here on like a moment’s notice. “

Gert reached out, took Chase’s hand, and nodded, “Chase is right – if Jonah or the police figure out Darius helped us, we’re going to have to assume he’ll give us up.”

Alex frowned, “We’re going to be ok for a while – I’ve been pretty good about covering my tracks, and I’m pretty sure Darius isn’t on the radar when it comes to us. But I do want to make sure that we can’t be tracked before we move – if we’re going to have to relocate, I want to make sure it can’t be found.”

Gert shook her head, “You seriously think them being able to track us is a possibility?”

Alex shrugged, “Well – yeah. I mean, wouldn’t your parent’s have put a tracker in Lace, at least? And, who knows what kind of radio waves or radioactivity or whatever either Karo or Molly are giving off?”

The group fell silent for a few seconds as they all considered what Alex said, and then Gert nodded. She pulled at Chase’s hand – he looked at her, then got up and followed after her, frowning and avoiding looking at Alex. “I hope you know what you’re doing,” Gert commented as she and Chase left the kitchen.

Karo and Nico followed them out, with Karo giving him a sympathetic smile and squeezing his shoulder as they left. Alex gave her a tight smile, and then raised an eyebrow as Molly took the seat across the table from him. “Well, I trust you,” she said with a shrug. “You had my back when I said Gert needed her meds, so I’ve got yours on this.”

Alex smiled gratefully, “Thanks, Molls.” Molly’s smile beamed back at him as he turned back to his computer, and his thoughts echoed Gert’s – he really did hope he knew what he was doing too.


End file.
